beasts which brighten if you move it was wrong from plans to. start on t.v. dot com. japan is devastated by a massive tsunami after the biggest earthquake in the country's history buildings trains and ships are washed away the official number of dead is ninety five tonight but that number looks set to soar. countries across the pacific region including russia's far east are on tsunami alerts but the threat appears to be fading with hawaii reporting no major damage. in other news more violent clashes rock libya is colonel gadhafi forces push the rebels back the e.u. says it's not ruling out a military option now increasing fears of

a possible intervention. leaving its eight pm you're watching r.t. my name is kevin owen here in moscow and one main story dominating the news tonight the northeast of japan has been slammed by a major tsunami following the biggest earthquake in its history at least ninety five people are reported dead but that figure appears very conservative the real number looks likely to be many many more for example police say hundreds of bodies have been found drowned in the city of sendai the capital of the worst hit region the eight point nine magnitude quake off the eastern coast unleashed ten metre high waves which reached miles inland causing huge damage aftershocks are continuing tonight in japan tokyo was brought to its. still paralyzing the capital's transit

system meanwhile tsunami warnings have been lifted for some densely populated asia pacific countries like indonesia and taiwan they no longer appear to be at risk. just after the quake hit we had a chance to speak to an eyewitness who was in the capital tokyo. i was working at home and suddenly fell flat shocks i didn't know what to do sit at home all leave it there and i saw a message on the screen of my t.v. exhibit in twenty six and there would be an answer wait a gentile and left it was she had read i felt like i was an issue while attract it's in with everything around me krrish this thing was happening all day. all russia's far east has been braced for any tsunamis with people going to higher ground but the worst as i mentioned danger does appear to have passed as get the latest from our to go to skin off the go evening with the russian territory that

lies closest to the epicenter today's quake of course the carolyn's how the people there fairing. well absolutely decor all islands all right there in the neighborhood just several miles away from japan and one of them was hit by eat three metre high. that's about the height of a one story building think we know one was killed or injured in that incident and local infrastructure was not damaged as well but of course he's been evacuee around eleven thousand people in the circle the region in general to where ground and also declared a state of emergency in the area currently all we're going to see a rescue services are on standby or preparing for any type of scenario and i think that the similar picture in the entire northern pacific region is really remaining restore russian's eastern mainland meantime. on friday there were risks of more

to my knees hitting russian shores now these risks are reported to have reduced but there's still a possibility of aftershocks that's why russia's president meeting we did it has ordered. local emergency services and the thought is to be prepared for anything for any type of scenario even with this has also ordered russia's emergency ministry to get we need to help japan in this in this horrific disaster. of course we are really to help our neighbors in overcoming the effects of this severe earthquake a state of emergency has also been declared on our soil on the coral islands in the seattle region is what we're all necessary measures must also be taking to prevent damage and loss of life the tsunami has already reached our shores and we must all be consolidated it's time now ordering the emergency as minister to present a plan of assistance to japan which the emergencies ministry has already prepared

six jets of which are currently on standby and ten deliver rescuers doctors and medical equipment even in mobile hospitals to japan the only thing needed is an official request from japanese authorities already gofers can i think to bring you something very bare from central moscow. so ninety five deaths reported confirmed in japan but that is expected to rise one japanese news agency suggests there are literally tens of thousands unaccounted for tonight worst hit is the northeastern city of sendai police say almost every house there has been damaged or destroyed this eight point nine earthquake off the japanese coast is in fact the six largest ever recorded in the world experts say it's around eight thousand times bigger than the quake which devastated the new zealand city of christchurch last month we now have an update on the. figures we're now hearing

that it's now officially one hundred forty two people reported dead in today's event but as i say that is likely to be very very conservative. a ten meter wall of water was sense third through japan as a result of that quake today swept people away buildings and cars in its path a state of emergency has been declared a nuclear power plant in the northeast of japan after its cooling system failed no radiation leak though has been reported we will of course keep you up to date on the latest events as they come through to us in japan it is now of course nighttime there in japan as the rescue operation continues and those fires continue to burn. and. so look some other news to explosions of hit a residential area in northeastern moscow no one was hurt but investigators are

already linking it to another explosion just days ago r.t. sara firth as the latest. these to explain went off in the yard of the apartment block behind me here now is a little confused as to exactly where the take stations took place the latest. one take place. on the other one near the guys there was some reports that perhaps one was within a car and the call. that we needed the palms workplace equipment two hundred grand t.n.t. and contain nails. to shop till now no one was. killed some damage to the building. just days. later happened in another part of most i know that explosion took place at a bus shelter. the federal security academy and its. investigators now believe that the two explosions in the one a wednesday i could perhaps be linked explosions contain similar containers and who

investigates the looking to see whether the similar people behind it now there are unconfirmed reports some federal security officials in this apartment building say something that is going to be looking at still he's behind it again after the blast the wednesday the unconfirmed reports that investigators consider that it was like the terrorists from little school to the house of radically. thinking does he said well we know it's it is true that investigators do you believe at the moment there's a possibility that the plot from wednesday on the tick stations today could be linked. the evening as well but back to the main story of the three countries across the pacific here including south america the u.s. and an easy were put on alert for the tsunamis heading their way but while the first waves have reached america's main london a major threat does appear to be fading let's get the latest to bring in u.s. correspondent granita. johnny hi there what is the extent of the danger for the

united states as we speak tonight. well kavin the tsunami waves have hit the u.s. mainland the u.s. west coast pacifically the states of oregon california and washington have been on high alert since early friday morning but the tsunami there did not cause any serious damage those were just strong waves are six feet high on average that's the height of a tall person evacuations nevertheless it been earlier ordered in parts of washington and oregon scientists acknowledge they overstated those threat but be friended their actions saying they took the proper steps and learned the lessons of the two thousand and four indonesian tsunami that killed thousands of people who didn't get enough warning the fears of tsunami causing any serious damage in the u.s. mainland really diminished after the waves hit the islands of hawaii this morning waves of about six feet again were recorded there again they're happy no reports of

destruction there in hawaii roadways and beaches where am t. is the tsunami struck the state which it hours to prepare sirens sounded throughout the night and residents in coastal areas were sent to refuge areas and community centers and schools while poorest were moved to higher floors of hotels and those are the reports that we're getting and people waited. there also saying people waited in long lines stocking up on gas bottled water canned food and generators but none of these was needed because the waves of have lost their destructive power along the way from the epicenter of the earthquake which of course was off the coast of japan but still the tsunami warning is in place of the united states and the west coast although we have seen some live pictures from california and it looks quite calm there the coast there we're also getting reports from alaska over a dozen small communities were on alert but then again there were no reports of

damage from a wave just over five feet in the state of washington. the same thing now experts say the tsunami is unlikely to cause damage in the u.s. but they also say the aftershocks cannot be underestimated so everyone is still on alert here it's interesting little bit earlier all of the people came together in the book and the warnings went out of this. search even google were reporting it just on the search page that does seem to have been a concerted effort of so many people to work together to try and we. only this is my day became the wall it's the largest earthquake damage in the last one hundred and eleven years it's been the most powerful since nine point zero magnitude earthquake struck the archer area of indonesia and can thousand or four causing a massive tsunami that killed about two hundred fifty thousand people in fourteen

countries and washed away entire communities japan is part of the so-called ring of fire that is the same high circle of earthquake and volcanic regions that passes from south america could be up to alaska and back down through japan to the south pacific those territories paraphrase remain very vulnerable to natural disasters like that ok go to karen thanks producer today they're not quite sure if you still got the connection you can hear me but thanks for the. world japan is there a nuclear power emergency after the cooling system failed in a. following the earthquake in the northeast. you're an expert on chemical safety he says there is a reason for major concern. problem is actually very serious because we're talking could well be possible distractions over the chemical plants and all forget

on its power stations and as to the chemical plant the air didn't clear we are having in mind been possible content nation balsam of the air and their land was the top seed chemicals which my. flowing to the cultural products and as two d. nuclear power stations i have to say there the japanese nation became very sensitive to the problem of the radioactive pollution and all it can tear half their going back in the ninety forty five when two first american not only forms have been exploded all of or killed or sure my and i sat here. ok well let's take a look at another major news story of course the one that's been ongoing for the last month or so the european union now say it's keeping

a military option open when it comes to libya but only if it has the backing of the u.n. an arab league and an emergency summit in brussels e.u. leaders showed political support for libya's opposition council but they did stop short of official recognition let's talk now to dimitri rico's and he's russia's envoy to nato mr a goes in very good evening at the says it's keeping its military options open and has expressed support for libya's opposition council what does that mean what's your take on it. i mean. you have got where you have the moment when you will trip but it is currently in progress and relations are possible actions against the gadhafi regime. different options are being considered or who would be you're going to go in. pulled out of the shores of libya. to the plans of install a no fly zone are considered very seriously for the western diplomacy speak at

first right now. is an opportunity to for the first request in the libyan opposition the search operation and also requesting the league of arab states for to receive an opinions of other people referred to. when trying to push that decision through the u.n. security council i just wanted to clarify nato says that it is united while france is reportedly asked for aerial attacks against gadhafi held parts of libya can you just tell us how you see it exactly how united is the alliance and what's russia's position about that. could you. see that there is a signal good if it was a shit move in the within days i won't say it. we have noticed that only go that there isn't a difference. for example turkey is trying to steer clear of this entire

story with libya. hearing against me. or mine charities relations with the muslim world. and. germany's being very cautious in relation to nato as possible actions to go beyond. plato's scope of responsibility. quite on the opposition is why it is going forward. and the french and british diplomats are being very active in the region. just like in the good old times trying to strengthen their country's positions in this north african region general speaking of hue later as a general nato is doing everything to prepare for the war but it has not the slightest chance to achieve any internal unity on this matter you use the word war

there is there a difference between war and intervention and some way down the road if there is a foreign intervention by foreign troops would russia or other support that military intervention. of this i'm sure the. first of all relevant committees for work of course to gather the facts the facts is a good only the facts on the table of the un security council merely may lead to any serious discussion of the stance or as of today there have been no such facts there vali can show the list reports from the conflict zone and it was created on a whole load like to say that we consider the situation very complex. very much resembling a civil conflict far as we know gadhafi he is perfectly in the willing to resort to heavy. machinery and heavy weaponry. there's a real danger here of failure tree intervention into their fares or for instance.

duffy thanks to the west's effort pain and he's really become the most popular figure in the islamic world with a certain air of martyr don't order around him. certain air of a person who is suffering for his own nation this is old possible souls skepticism . directs military action against libya there and it has grown growing stronger look at america's position america has chosen to wait it is the french and the british that are being very active. right now much more active than washington probably about france and says it's recognizing the rebels as the legitimate power come international community trust these libyan rebels. the libyan opposition will. says something was different for me. we barely know

those people who they are well some of them are some of the old from the former gadhafi started. the church and the opposition. and then there is a certain sense of legitimizing the opposition can go in not only in western states . so that later at least the no fly zone that will be imposed and that of moderate opposition but still the question is arise you who are those people who call the people who gave probably period are currently negotiating with the leadership of the european union question is just how representative they are into they actually represents for the entire. me. this is a complex question and. this is still virtual this is so rhetorical conflicts around libya is go into the last. ok to be true goes in russia's envoy to nato thank you for being on r.t. tonight appreciate it. let's talk more about libya now and talk to the deputy

editor of spiked magazine rob alliance's joins us from london mr lyons very good evening to you i'm going to come she just a second if you could just stay on the line with us for just getting viewers up to date on all the news that's unfortunately coming through from japan but we're getting a news line unconfirmed news line from the news agency that radiation levels are reported to be rising at the fukushima number one nuclear plant turbine building that is the plant very near the epicenter of today's eight point nine quake. authorities have been very worried about that site all day today there has been a state of emergency there the government very quick to point out though but there was no thought to be any huge danger but they were evacuating people in three kilometer radius around the plant as a say the details still very sketchy this is just one news agency is giving us this

information of the moment or killed a news agency saying that radiation levels are reported to be rising in the fukushima number one nuclear plant as soon as we get more about that we will of course keep you posted all right let's go back to our story let's go back to our guest rob lyons talking to us from london mr vines so what interjecting there just bring our viewers up to date now nato is increasing its military presence in the central mediterranean tonight with world powers not ruling out the possibility of military intervention do you think that's the best solution. no i don't so i think it would be a real disaster for the libyan people if the west towards getting involved i think the recent historical experiences in iraq and afghanistan under a few other places as well shows that actually. that much is done in the name of democracy and freedom actually that the people involved are on the wrong end of the civilian deaths and that kind of thing a lot of actually have in many ways less creativity have in the past. but some

experts are comparing events in libya to make those invasion of iraq is that it's a comparison. no i don't think so i think because of iraq in a way because that. back in one nine hundred ninety one to two thousand and three nato had. the united states in particular had a certain amount of the just a mystery and also a lot a lot more capability to engage in something like this. both iraq and afghanistan interventions are pretty unpopular i would think that u.s. president barack obama is going to try to work his way out of those situations as easily as possible so i think that. he would try to avoid. something else if at all possible that doesn't mean he doesn't think he has the rights to and obviously the language coming out of nato is that the west has every right to clean but they may feel that practically that's just too difficult for them to do. but when western

nations insist the military is on standby to help prevent a humanitarian crisis what's your take on that in your opinion would there be this much mobilization if oil wasn't underground. well i don't i think the oil come sometimes be a bit of a red herring in these discussions what's usually going on in it is that there is actually a bit of competition going on between the major western powers about who can seeds and who can seem to be the most kind of moral the most ethical on the world stage so front for the moment it is really it seems to be driving things at the moment but then the british prime minister and foreign secretary been talking about the possibility of intervention as well and usually these things are a sign of things not going well for politicians at home though they want to try and find some sort of story some issue on the world stage they can provide a bit of a distraction provide her with a sense that they've got some sort of purpose which is lacking in the domestic sphere so i wouldn't think too much about the oil situation but i do think though

is that even the saber rattling is going to have a very. advance on the ground in libya because the possibility of intervention. one on one hands being that gadhafi is going to have to work much faster to try and end the uprising before the possibility of arises and on the other hand the rebels will now be looking at a broad. to try to resolve this conflict rather than looking for their own ability to do with this situation and i think that's a very very bad sign as well i think that's going to make a mess regardless of even if one shot was fired from from from the west a possibility of it happening is already distorting things on the ground right rob lines of spiked magazine on the line from london thanks for your thoughts on the issue here in r.t. time. let's get more now on the japan disaster the big story of the day we're joined by wassily take selfies from the u.s. center for tsunami research ttyl for good evening to you thanks for taking the time and to be with us. first question i guess maybe now is in the times and be

asking it as so much is going on but could this quake have been foreseen we did hear maybe the good side of it there was at least a fifteen minute warning about the subsequent tsunami after that quake but could the actual quake itself have been foreseen. of predicting earthquakes is a very difficult proposition and so far there have been no successes no predicting earthquakes so we're it's well redeveloping that's not what exists now which is based on the fact that so many has been generated and when we know that we can predict. and it's a lot of republish and pretty well and billions but there. is it is a difficult thing to live look at the way it's work today i was just mentioning to our washington correspondent just now even search websites like google if you

hadn't seen any news for the day you turned on you completely even that was giving a warning there was a public service announcement japan for its part very vigilant about keeping a watch for disaster and regular old safety drills among its population doesn't it but any more have been done do you think. it's difficult question of course it's a big disaster it is no question but whenever you just want to help and we all want to see what can be done more. it seems to me is a big it's good for different things to predict tsunamis are very severe a natural phenomenon. there was a lot can be done in terms of the operation all. over probably for two months and for too long a fourth we develop into a lot of pork a system that is part of the tsunami warning the other part a very important part is how to probably get his information out to the public and

it is a very difficult task especially for all the cases like in japan it's not only astronomy we were probably hitting to and only about twenty fifty minutes after the earthquakes which was the all in nature and one with his people in the nearest coast for it why it was because of them it's still it's for example it was much more one time so they could react more and more efficiently so you know like for example and back to say there are numerous times to just how well protected is your part against this kind of situation i'm thinking really primarily now as well about the country's nuclear plants many of them shut down automatically working up a little bit but this is i could hear the question. japan how well protected. we've lost the line there to mr seeds of the seeds of an expert on tsunamis bring us up to date is from the u.s. center for tsunami research and as a say that breaking news we got earlier on just following on from what i was

talking to we were getting a news line from the kyoto news agency nobody else at the moment saying that radiation levels in the nuclear power plant the fukushima number one plant that the authorities were worried of were reported to be rising we don't know what that means for the public we don't know if there's any danger involved in that whether it's something that can be sorted out of course soon as we do find out more details we'll bring you up to date. what. it's like well the northeast of japan which was hit by the massive tsunami caused by the biggest earthquake in nearly half a century was the worst off as you'd expect i guess the official number of dead as risen in this last hour it's currently two hundred forty two souls now but it is set to rise as well unfortunately perhaps most worrying now is the damage caused to that fukushima nuclear plant the tokyo electric power company reportedly saying the pressure inside that reactor of your screen talking about is quote rising and there

is a risk the saying of a radiation leak in the city of sendai itself has suffered most in this disaster where the worst is feared for hundreds tonight perhaps thousands of people let's not forget the time of day where it is now a major search and rescue operations underway in darkness and it's involving military planes and ships. coverage continues of course here on r.t. we will keep you up to date with the latest as we get it through from our correspondents and the news wires that we're monitoring around the clock for you stay with us. google. wealthy british soil.